As the moon rose over the horizon, Twilight and her group arrived at her castle, laughing and sharing past experiences as they neared the front door to the castle.
"Oh, this certainly has been one glorious day!" Rarity exclaimed. "Did you enjoy the tour, New Blood?"
He nodded his head vigorously. "I sure did, Rarity! Thank you again for showing me around."
"It was my pleasure, darling." She gave him a friendly pat on the head. "If you ever need some nice formal wear, don't be afraid to visit my boutique, alright? Do you think you can remember that for me?"
"Of course, I’ll never forget." He smiled proudly, which made Rarity giggle.
"Oh, and as for you—" She turned to Twilight. "—Don’t worry about his first day at school. I’ll make sure to tell Sweetie Belle to look after him. He’ll be better than fine."
"Thank you, Rarity," Twilight said, relieved. She lit up her horn and opened the castle door with her magic, leading the group inside the foyer.
"Until next time everypony. Ta-ta!" Rarity flipped her hair, turned around, and began her trot back to the boutique, leaving them alone.
"Wow. I think I understand now why Aunt Celly wanted me to come here, this place is awesome!" Blueblood remarked, bouncing in excitement.
Twilight, however, looked at him in concern. "Blueblood?"
"Yeah, Twilight?"
"Can you do me a small favor?"
Blueblood titled his head to the side. "Of course, what do you need?"
"Please tap your necklace twice."
"Right away, Twilight," he replied, and did as instructed, returning to his older self. Once the transformation finished, he stumbled back slightly, overcome with sudden dizziness. "Oh wow, my head…why is the room spinning?" Blueblood held his head with a hoof.
"Overuse of magic can do that to you," Spike commented as he helped steady Blueblood with a claw. "Remember what Princess Luna said: you become what you imagine. So, the longer you stay transformed, the longer you’ll start to feel like you’re the thing you’ve become."
"I feel weird," Blueblood murmured, shaking his head. Then he looked at his hoof. "Before, it was like my body was pumped full of energy. Now it’s like my head is all…fuzzy. Kind of like when you stay up too late and get overtired. Everything’s all wibbly-wobbly.” He slowly shook his hoof up and down. “Look Twily, it’s a rubber pencil!"
"No wonder Princess Luna was wary of him using the necklace," Twilight pondered as the three began walking down a long hallway. "It seems that being a mature unicorn shrunk down doesn’t save you from draining too much mana from you. You shouldn't risk yourself using it more than absolutely necessary," she advised. "Lucky for you, I know exactly what we should do!"
"What’d ya have in mind, Twiggy?" Blueblood asked with a bit of a slur.
Twilight rolled her eyes at the silly nickname but didn’t reply. Instead, she guided them both towards the main library, located at the rear of the castle, and started searching on a bookshelf in the far left corner of the room. She grabbed several books in her magic, read their titles, then replaced them, repeating the cycle a few more times.
Blueblood yawned and smacked his lips. "Uuhhh, Twiles?"
"Dude, you don’t sound so good. You should probably sit down before you fall over. It could be a while, Twilight’s in—” Spike made air quotes with his claws, “—’Study Mode’. Right now, unless you’re a book, nothing else exists to her. I looked it up once — something about object permanence and tunnel vision. I’m not really good with all that psychology stuff. We just gotta give her a moment."
"That’s a lotta words I don’t understand, little bro.” Blueblood looked around, “Sooo, what’s this place exactly?"
"This is the castle library! Anything you’re interested in, we have a book for it," Spike explained, puffing out his chest in pride. “I’ve organized this place so many times that I can locate pretty much anything without looking.”
"Wait, really? Even, say…magic spells?"
"Oh, naturally. It’s Twilight’s library after all," he replied with an affirmative nod.
“And ghost stories?”
“Some of the scariest. A few have even been found to be true!”
“Cool! I wonder if we know somebody who’s a ghost?”
“Probably not, most ghosts are really hostile to other ponies. Nasty business.”
At that moment Twilight appeared from behind one of the stacks. She heaved a burly looking volume in front of them and gingerly set it open on the floor. "We’ll be using this. And Spike, try not to startle him, he’s really impressionable right now," she said with a glare towards her assistant (the unapologetic whistle Spike was doing wasn’t helping). She pointed her hoof at a specific page, containing a detailed illustration of a unicorn standing in front of a rectangular, floor-length mirror with wavy lines for sides. However, instead of reflecting the pony’s image, the mirror showed a griffon.
"Uh, Twilight? Can't read, remember?" Blueblood reminded her.
"Oh…right, sorry," Twilight muttered sheepishly. "The spell I’ll be using will be similar to a funhouse mirror spell. However, it's a lot more complex, so not many unicorns know it, meaning it’s a safe bet to use. Once I cast it over the castle it’ll mask your appearance to anypony that visits as long as you stay inside the castle. To everypony you’ll appear as your colt self," she explained. "That way, we can keep your visit a secret without risking your health."
Blueblood looked uncertain. "That just seems overly complicated. Why can’t I just be me? We used to know each other before I lost my memory, right?"
She shook her head rapidly. "Because I’ve already established your story as a young colt staying as a guest at the castle. Having your older self prancing about and the younger missing will look really suspicious. That, and a lot of folks around here aren’t exactly fans of your…former self. Don't worry Blueblood, with enough mana this spell can be made nearly permanent. I’ll simply link it to the ambient magic of the castle itself." Twilight smirked with complete confidence.
"But what if somepony touches me?" Blueblood asked, looking at his hooves again. "You’re making an illusion, right? So, what happens if a pony tries to give me a hug and instead ends up holding my hoof or something?"
"That’s why this spell is sure to work." She tapped the page of the book. "This spell will also mess with their depth perception. So if anypony tried that, their brain would automatically adjust their aim without even realizing it." She grinned. "It can even change your voice!"
"Yeah, Blueblood, it’s like you’ve never been to a funhouse run by a unicorn before. Besides, you’ve got nothing to worry about. Twilight’s, like, super good when it comes to casting spells and stuff," Spike said.
"It just seems like using the amulet but with extra steps," Blueblood grumbled.
"But with far less mana drain!"Twilight emphasized, before abruptly charging her horn. "Please stand back, Spike — when this spell hits peak thaumic efficiency, you’re gonna see some serious science!"
Spike immediately complied and soon after a small mote of purple electricity emerged from the tip of her horn. It arched across the room, then popped in a ring of light that expanded to cover the entire room in a flash, before slowly dissipating into just a few sparkles of glitter which gently floated to the floor.
The prince looked at his hooves and tail but didn’t notice any changes. "Did it work?"
"See for yourself," Twilight replied with a smirk, conjuring a large mirror in front of him and revealing his colt counterpart.
"Whoa…it can even fool reflections?" Blueblood exclaimed, impressed by the result.
"Not quite, but the result is the same. The spell on the castle will also affect you. It would have been needlessly complex to limit the effect to certain ponies. You’re seeing what we see,” Twilight corrected, fluffing up her wings in a subtle show of pride. "Now we can relax a bit more during your stay in the castle."
"I really don't know what to say, Twilight. Seriously, thank you!" Blueblood said, a huge smile donning his face. He wrapped a foreleg around her in an appreciative hug, which made her giggle and return the gesture.
"Anytime, cousin. You know I'm here to help,” Twilight replied.
They ended the hug and Blueblood let out a huge yawn. "Well, as much as I’d like to stay up longer, it’s been a really busy day. I think I’ll call it a night."
"I'm with you there, buddy," Spike added with an accompanying yawn as he scratched his head. "It really was a long day. I’ll see you guys tomorrow." With that, he plodded off to his room, arms hanging limply at his sides.
Twilight nodded. "Maybe it's for the best. Tomorrow, you’ll start your first day of school, so it’d be smart if you got as much rest as possible."
“No arguments here." Blueblood nodded and started to leave.
"Blueblood?" Twilight called out to him before he got too far.
"Yeah, Twi?" He looked back at her and noticed how she stared down at the floor, looking uncomfortable. "What happened this morning…" She gazed back at him. "You know that even if you were a colt I was being serious, right?"
Blueblood’s ears pinned back, then he turned to the hallway. "I know, Twilight."
"I meant every word, Blueblood. I'm always here for you if you ever want or need to talk about anything. You know that, right?."
The prince sighed and closed his eyes in thought. "I know Twilight, I…will try my best."
"That’s all I want." She smiled and closed the book with her magic.
"Twilight," Blueblood called. She turned back to see that he was still not looking at her. “I was…" he started, and then he hesitated. He looked as if he was conflicted about something, but in the end he shook his head. "Never mind, it doesn't matter. Goodnight, Twilight."
Twilight wanted to say something too as she extended her hoof, but she stopped herself and retracted it. "You too…" she whispered, watching him with concern as he slowly left the room.
The morning classes began as they normally did, with a purple earth pony mare writing her lessons for the day on the large chalkboard, as colts and fillies entered her classroom and sat in their respective seats. Once she’d finished, she put the chalk away and addressed her class with a smile. "Good morning, students!"
"Good morning, Miss Cheerilee!" The fillies and colts responded in unison.
"Before we begin our lesson, I’d like to introduce you all to a new student that’ll be joining us for some time," Cheerilee said to them with cheer evident in her voice. "Princess Twilight’s distant cousin, New Blood." She pointed a hoof at the door of her classroom where Blueblood, in his colt form, was standing with his head held low, holding his small saddlebag and trying to be as small as possible.
"Don't be afraid, sweetheart. Come in and introduce yourself!" Cheerilee coached him.
Soon the colt walked inside and waved at them. "H-hi everyone."
"Hi, New Blood!" the class responded, some even waving to him.
"New Blood, why don't you go and find yourself a seat? There’s one available behind Sweetie Belle."
"O-okay Miss Cheerilee."
Miss Cheerilee leaned over to him. "Oh, and don't worry about today’s classes. Twilight’s already informed me about your situation," she whispered into his ear. "Since you’re new here, today you can just sit and listen to the class. Will that be okay with you?"
Blueblood nodded and went to the available desk without saying anything to anypony. He sat down and immediately withdrew a book from his saddlebag and opened it to the first of many illustrated pages. It was a picture book on the Equestrian alphabet that Twilight had packed for him. She had said it was titled “Prim & Proper’s Guides to Early Education: Phonetic Pictorials''. This was the first of twenty-eight such volumes.
He casually flipped through the first couple of pages, noticing the varied, vivid visuals on the thin parchment. The book must have been three pony shoes thick, and could easily contain over five-hundred pages which made him wonder how such a thing was a children’s book. Blueblood made a note to himself that, once he figured out the numbering system, he’d flip to the final page to check the count. Flipping back to the first page, he began his studies with determination.
"Well kids, I hope you’ve all brought your pencils, because today’s class is a very important lesson. You’d all be wise to remember it," Cherilee lectured, before pointing to the chalkboard. "Continuing on with last week’s lessons on pony magic, we are going to be discussing ‘magic surges’." She tapped the first of three chalk drawings on the backboard: a pony shoe.
Blueblood looked up, suddenly interested in the subject at hoof. He looked at the teacher before gazing at the book, ultimately deciding to put it away for now.
"As you all know, magic is a primordial factor in life for Equestria. It exists in all forms, shapes, and sizes, organic and inorganic alike, and of course that includes us," she explained. "And because of that, all of us need to be careful with our emotions and how we express and control them." She chuckled, and then looked at the class with a mischievous gleam in her eye. "Unless, of course, somepony wants to have a windigo as their new neighbor, right?"
The entire class broke out into giggles at that, before slowly dying down.
"Miss Cheerilee!” an orange filly pegasus with a purple mane raised her hoof. "Was a magic surge the reason wendigos showed up in the first place?"
"That’s very close, Scootaloo," Cheerilee answered. "If you remember back to the Hearth's Warming play, the wendigos were drawn to a group where one or more ponies may have surged. Since our magic is linked so closely to our emotions it's important that we try our best to keep strong, negative emotions in moderation and release them safely."
“Why’s that, Miss Cheerilee?” another filly, this one yellow with a red mane and pink bow asked.
"That, Applebloom, is because when a pony’s stronger emotions, like anger, hate, fear, and sadness reach a certain level, their body has no choice but to expel it all at once. This phenomenon is what we call a ‘magic surge’ and it can result in some serious and dangerous side effects," Cheerilee answered, then continued to write on the chalkboard.
"Take earth ponies like myself for example. Earth ponies especially have an inherent connection with the earth itself. A magic surge could result in permanent damage to the very minerals and nutrients in the soil itself, the growth of the plants around us or, even worse, ponies and other creatures. It’s been said that one such surge created what we now know as the Everfree Forest," she said. "And I'm sure that nopony here would like to create more of those places, right?"
The earth ponies in the room flinched and shook their heads rapidly.
"Collectively, we call those places ‘Sorrows of the Land’,” Cheerilee continued, as she wrote the names of a few of such places on the chalkboard under a drawing of a ponyshoe; flytrap forest, gloom’s glowforge, blasted crown island, shadow sneak vines, mirelurk swamp, quarry eels, and cry-stone mine.
Blueblood looked to his classmates who were using either their mouths or their magic to write, and idly felt his own horn with a hoof. Would he be able to write like that soon?
"Moving on, we have the pegasi." Cheerilee pointed to the picture of a pegasus wing. "As the primary controllers of the weather. A magic surge could result in their bodies becoming literal storms, shape impossible clouds, and change the weather of entire regions. Much of that is a best-case scenario. As you may know, one single, healthy, adult pegasus with a weather related cutiemark can create a thunderstorm. During a magic surge, they could provoke a natural disaster that could keep on growing out of control which would make it extremely difficult for even an entire team to break up or redirect. The top end of that scale can even produce ‘Living Storms', a storm that is self-sustaining, so big that they can not be moved.” Cheerilee wrote a list of some such places on the chalkboard; rumble ridge, gravity falls, Marecaibo lake, tornado valley, glufferflorks, and foggy bottom bog.
The pegasi foals all grimaced and looked back at their wings, wondering just how much power their bodies held inside them.
“Regardless of tribe, a magic surge would leave a pony drained of all their energy. Most ponies would be unable to walk and many would fall asleep. Further, a unicorn would take days of rest before they could cast spells again and a pegasus would be unable to cloudwalk or fly," she intoned. The pegasi all clamped their wings tightly against the bodies.
"And finally, we have the unicorns." Cheerilee continued, pointing at the chalk drawing of a unicorn horn on the board.
Blueblood blinked and once again pawed at his horn with a hoof, this time out of worry. He braced himself for whatever he could be facing at some point.
"The most proficient in magic of the three tribes. When it comes to the manipulation of magic, a unicorn must always be careful, but during a magic surge that may become impossible. For example, a pony like Twilight Sparkle, her cutiemark represents the understanding and performing of magic in all of its forms. Documented magic surges from her have resulted in flash fires and localized wind gales. Out of the three tribes, the unicorn has the most unpredictable magic surges because of their magical education and cutiemark classification." Cheerilee wrote a few places on the chalkboard; creeper crystals, cloud squall, Brad’s bottomless Pitt, destruction's end, and castle Grayskull.
Had Blueblood’s fur not already been white, he would’ve made an impressive imitation of a Halloween ghost then and there.
When Cheerilee finished writing, she looked over the class. "Remember kids, it's okay to express your anger if the situation provokes it because bottling that anger only makes it grow. However, a magic surge is never okay. Always be careful and keep in mind how to de-escalate a tense situation through finding a common ground, or by simply offering a hoof in friendship or kindness. A magic surge is nothing to joke about. Many lives have been lost because of them." Cheerilee started a fourth list on the chalkboard; Everfree forest, battle of East hastings, whip and idol transfer, ten-six tea party, poke-a-mango, children of the night, lost woods labyrinth, Sunny’s pinpoint, and dance party button.
At that moment a bell rang out announcing the end of the first period.
“Time for recess. Go play, kids! We’ll continue this after recess," she announced. Almost as soon as she did, everypony began to file out of the room. Blueblood, however, instead moved towards Cheerilee.
"That was an amazing lesson Miss Cheerilee!" Blueblood praised.
Cheerilee beamed at him. "I'm glad that you liked it, New Blood. I always try to make my lessons as interesting as possible."
"Well, you sure did well today, but there’s something I was left wondering about…"
"Yes? What was that, dear?"
"Well, you told us about what happens if an earth pony, a unicorn, or a pegasus gets really angry, but what if an alicorn has a magic surge?" he asked.
Cheerilee flinched. "I…” she began. “I didn’t…want to worry anypony.” Her ears folded back and she lowered her head, looking back at the chalkboard. “That’s what the fourth list is for." she whispered to him.
Blueblood’s eyes went wide. "What was that, miss?"
“That’s…something I’ll be teaching later when we cover history. For now, why don't you go outside and play with the other foals?" She lightly pushed him out of the room and then pointed to the orange filly, who was talking with a white unicorn filly and the yellow earth pony filly from before.
“Well, if you’re sure, miss,” Blueblood murmured.
"Don’t worry, New Blood. Look, the Cutie Mark Crusaders are over there. Why don't you go and play with them? I'm sure they would love for you to join them!" Cheerilee replied quickly, nudging him toward the door.
Blueblood looked back at her, confused, before shrugging and doing as she’d said, while the teacher watched him go.
He really is Twilight’s cousin, she thought with a giggle. Jumping ahead of the class, right to the difficult questions! She chuckled again before wiping off her chalkboard, and began preparing for the next lesson.
Meanwhile at the train station
A blue pegasus mare with a rainbow colored mane and tail stepped out of the train, stretching in joy. "Aw yeah, that’s the stuff! It's good to be back!"
"Oh, come on, Rainbow," a pink unicorn with a dark purple mane and tail with a cyan streak passing through it groaned at the pegasus as she emerged from the train. "We weren't gone for that long. Plus, you said that you enjoyed our friendship mission, especially since you got a chance to have another race with Lighting Dust."
Rainbow Dash just shrugged at the comment. "What can I say, Starlight? There’s no place like home!" she replied, before abruptly leaping into the air.
"Well, you won’t get any arguments from me there," Starlight replied as she left the station. "Wanna head to the castle and let Twilight know how the mission went?"
"Nah, you can go do that egghead stuff of yours. I think I'll go surprise Scootaloo and see if we can rustle up some snacks from Sugarcube Corner. See ya later, Starlight!" Rainbow mock-saluted, and then flew away, leaving a streak of rainbow in the sky as her friend waved her goodbye.
Well, time to see Twilight, Starlight thought to herself, chuckling a little as she headed towards Twilight’s castle. Knowing Ponyville, I’d imagine some crazy adventure’s happened during our absence. Wouldn’t be the first time, and certainly not the last.